Gas grills have become very popular as outdoor portable cooking devices. Gas barbecue grills generally consist of a cooking chamber supported by a support frame. Portable gas grills employ a cart-type support frame for the cooking chamber that is supported on wheels and has a cooking chamber thereon. These support structures are usually made of square tubing sections connected together with fasteners, such as bolts and the like. These support frames are often equipped to have a work table surface adjacent to the cooking chamber, or an auxiliary burner. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 4,677,964 discloses a portable barbecue grill and cart assembly with a side table and a side burner. Portable gas grills are usually packaged with the cart disassembled in order to reduce the packaging size, requiring the purchaser to assemble the tubing sections and attach the cooking chamber and any side tables or side burner.
One of the problems with this type of grill is the difficulty for the purchaser or retail seller of such grills in assembling tubing sections into a cart and including any side accessories. Such assembly typically requires much time following detailed instructions, and packaging of a number of various fasteners such as bolts and brackets. Further, such assembly of the portable grills results in a cart structure that is susceptible to poorly tightened fasteners and/or attachment joints which may loosen, resulting in loss of the integrity of the grill support or the integrity of the side accessory attachment.
Further, when side accessories are attached to and extend from the cart frame, using conventional fastening structures may result in marginal load-bearing capacity of the side table. To avoid this problem, various support arms which extend diagonally from the outer underside of the side table to the support frame have been employed. The result of these designs is a cart structure that has exposed unsightly support members, and which has more parts and connections, making it even more difficult to assemble.
Therefore, there is a need for a barbecue grill having a cart with solid construction and ease of assembly, and which is suitable for compact packaging. Additionally, there is a need for a barbecue grill with a sturdy side table construction, which is also easily assembled.